OxfordAQA IGCSE Sociology: Introducing Sociology — Revision Notes

Condensed for the final weeks. For the full explanation, use the Introducing Sociology study guide.

Paper 1 has three sections: Families (3.1.1, 22 marks), Education (3.1.2, 22 marks) and Research methods (3.1.3, 16 marks — shared with Paper 2).

Families (3.1.1)

Family types: nuclear, extended, single-parent, reconstituted (step-), “living apart together” couples, child-free couples, “beanpole” families (many generations, few members each). Therborn identified different family systems across world regions, showing family form is not universal. Marriage types include arranged and love marriages, monogamy and (in some societies) polygamy.

Perspectives (named sociologists: Engels, Oakley, Parsons, Smart, Stacey, Therborn):

Perspective	Core claim
Functionalism (Parsons)	Family performs positive functions — primary socialisation, “stabilisation of adult personalities”
Marxism (Engels)	Family serves capitalism — reproduces labour power, transmits property, a form of social control
Feminism (Oakley)	Family positions women unequally, especially around domestic labour and childcare

Social change: industrialisation and urbanisation reshaped family form; demographic change (rising life expectancy, falling birth rates) has produced more “beanpole” families and a “pivot generation” caring for children and ageing parents simultaneously. Smart’s work on individualisation and Stacey’s work on diverse, “negotiated” family forms both describe growing family diversity.

Gender, age and family life: unequal division of domestic labour persists even in dual-earner households; children’s status has shifted from economic contributors to long-term financial dependants; “boomerang” adult children return home for economic reasons; older people’s roles range from providing childcare to needing care themselves.

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Education (3.1.2)

Official (formal) curriculum — subjects formally taught (maths, science, history). Hidden curriculum — attitudes and behaviours taught informally through school organisation and routine (punctuality, respect for authority, competitiveness).

Perspectives (named sociologists: Becker, Bourdieu, Davis and Moore, Freire, Illich, Samson):

Perspective	Core claim
Functionalism (Davis and Moore)	Education allocates roles by ability and socialises shared values — “role allocation”
Marxism (Bourdieu)	Education reproduces class inequality; better-off pupils have more cultural capital, which schools reward
Radical/critical (Freire, Illich)	Traditional schooling can suppress critical thought rather than develop it

Relationships and processes in school: labelling and the self-fulfilling prophecy — a teacher attaches a label (e.g. “bright,” “disruptive”), often on limited evidence (Becker’s work on labelling); this shapes teacher expectations and how the pupil is treated; the pupil internalises and acts out the label, making the original expectation come true. Pupil subcultures can form in response, some pro-school and some anti-school. Racism and sexism in the classroom can operate through the same labelling process.

Educational attainment: differences by social class (cultural capital, resources for study), gender (subject-choice patterns, gendered expectations) and ethnicity (differing teacher expectations, stereotyping); credentialism — qualifications used as a filter even where the content is not directly job-relevant, which raises measurement issues when comparing attainment across groups.

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Research methods (3.1.3 — shared with Paper 2)

Primary data is collected first-hand; secondary already exists. Quantitative is numerical; qualitative is descriptive.

Term	Meaning
Reliability	Repeating the study gives the same result
Validity	It gives a true picture
Representativeness	The sample reflects the wider population

Quantitative methods are strong on reliability, weak on validity; qualitative methods are the reverse. That trade-off answers most methods questions on its own.

Method	Strengths	Weaknesses
Questionnaire	Cheap, large samples, reliable	Low response rate, low validity
Structured interview	Reliable, comparable	Interviewer bias, little depth
Unstructured interview	Valid, detailed	Slow, unreliable, small samples
Participant observation	Very valid, reveals real behaviour	Hawthorne effect, going native, ethical issues
Official statistics	Cheap, large-scale	Socially constructed by the state

Sampling: random, systematic, stratified, quota, snowball, opportunity. A pilot study trials the method first so problems can be corrected.

Ethics: informed consent, confidentiality, protection from harm, no deception, right to withdraw. Research involving children additionally requires parental or guardian consent alongside the child’s own agreement.

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Exam traps

• Naming a family type, perspective or factor in achievement without explaining it.
• Describing a perspective on families or education without a clearly stated point of difference from another perspective.
• Confusing the official/formal curriculum with the hidden curriculum.
• Confusing reliability with validity.
• Evaluating a method in the abstract rather than for the specific topic being researched.
• Giving one side only when evaluation needs both plus a judgement.

Self-test

1. Name two family types other than the nuclear family.
2. State the functionalist and Marxist views of the family’s role in society, and one difference between them.
3. Distinguish the official curriculum from the hidden curriculum.
4. What does labelling in school lead to, and by what process?
5. Distinguish reliability from validity, and say which methods favour each.

Answers: 1. Any two of: extended, single-parent, reconstituted, “living apart together,” child-free, “beanpole” families. 2. Functionalism: the family performs positive functions such as primary socialisation and stabilising adult personalities. Marxism: the family serves capitalism’s interests, reproducing labour power and transmitting property. The key difference is that functionalism sees the family as broadly beneficial for society as a whole, while Marxism sees it as serving one class’s interests. 3. The official curriculum is what schools formally set out to teach (subjects and content); the hidden curriculum is the attitudes and behaviours taught informally through the way the school is organised and run. 4. Labelling can lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy, in which a teacher’s expectation of a pupil (based on a label) shapes how the pupil is treated, which the pupil then internalises and acts out, making the original expectation come true. 5. Reliability is consistency on repetition, favoured by quantitative methods; validity is giving a true picture, favoured by qualitative methods.